Pre-defined Terms in Collaborative Indexing Systems

Collaborative indexing systems have attracted an§increasing amount of attention over the last three§years. One fundamental limitation to such a system is§the uncontrolled nature of its vocabulary, as this§consists of terms users freely choose to index§resources. As a result, the vocabulary can be poorly§structured, making it difficult to identify§significant clusters of users, resources, or terms§important for search or exploration features.§Pre-defined terms are suggested to reduce this§uncontrolled vocabulary; these consolidate term §usage if users adopt them. However, this suggestion§has not yet been proved. This work therefore focuses§on an empirical study of the adoption of pre-defined§terms. The model of pre-defined term adoption (MPTA)§is formulated by applying technology acceptance §and diffusion of innovation theories, as well as§constructs of social network analysis. MPTA is then§validated by one lab experiment with 172 German§students, before being cross- validated by two §web experiments with 254 German and 160§English-speaking subjects. Results indicate that§pre-defined terms are appropriate for reducing the§uncontrolled nature of the vocabulary.